Lime Pound Cake

Sunday, January 23, 2011

I went to Trader Joes for the first time since starting this low iodine diet. I looked through the assortment of candy/chocolate covered fruits and nuts. I found these dark chocolate mint creams to be perfect! No salt and it didn't say milk in the ingredients.

In a saucepan add a drizzle of olive oil and sautee garlic and onion. Add canned tomatoes and seasoning. With an immersion blender puree sauce, bring to a boil, lower the temperature to a simmer, cover with a lid, and left simmer for about 20 minutes.

Boil pasta in salted water (non iodize salt). The pasta took me about 30 minutes to boil until soft.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

I have to be on this low iodine diet for a while. At least until the end of February.You will be seeing some new recipes coming as my husband and I try to cook things to fit this diet.

More info can be found hereThyroid Cancer Survivor AssociationI don't have thyroid cancer. I do have to have the same treatment as a thyroid cancer patient would have. Don't worry! I'll be fine in a few months.

Some of the guidelines include-No seafood. no problem since I don't eat any-No soy products. no soy sauce, no tofu, no soy beans. sadness :(-No processed foods. The frozen meals I like to eat at lunch at work are now OUT. AHHHHHHHHHH and so are things like canned soup. Good bye tomato soup in a can-No dairy. Whatever is used to clean the cow milking equipment has iodine. how will I like without milk, cheese, and yogurt. it really puts a damper on my breakfast options.-Only fresh bread. I just threw a loaf of sliced wheat bread in the freezer for when the diet is over.-Sea salt is out. I'll be eating those yummy flavored sea salts we have another time.-Sushi with seaweed is out, not that i'd eat it without soy sauce anyway.

Good things about the dietI can have unlimited fresh meats, vegetables, fruits

My husband and I just went shopping at a few stores, Harris Teeter and Mom (Mom's Organic Market)

So far I have -Sodium free granola for breakfast-No salt added deli turkey-Fresh pumpernickel bread from the bakery sliced into sandwich slices-Salt free salsa. I think I may make salsa chicken just without any canned foods-Salt free potato chips and tortilla chips. snacks!-Salt free mustard to top that deli turkey-Sprouts to top deli turkey too-Apples-Carrots. -Lettuce-Boneless pork chops for dinner-Broccoli for dinner-Fingerling potatoes for dinner-Salt without iodine

I couldn't find any salt free salad dressing. My husband is wanting me to just do oil and vinegar. I could use some lemon juice too.

We have already started thinking of how I can have Mexican food on this diet. If we make our own taco seasoning with the low iodine salt, I can eat ground beef on top of the salt free tortilla chips, and I can have vegetables on top just no cheese or sour cream. We also have that salt free salsa.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Once again I've decided to eat out much less during my lunch break at work. I'm trying to go out just one time during the work week. Last week was my first week back and I only went out once, on Friday, and I had Panera Bread.

I am really picky about my frozen microwave meals. I tend to like ones without meat the most. Smart Ones has a new meal out called Pasta with Ricotta and spinach. It was so good I went out and bought a second one for this week :)

I have recommended this one before but I really like this chili verde chicken burrito. It tends to be more expensive than the other frozen meals so I only get it once in a while.

When I want something chocolate I have been drinking some nestle hot chocolate for my chocolate fix. I also have cocoa almonds but I dont like them very much. I think they have a strange texture. A chocolate covered almond from Trader Joes would be better. I loved it when Trader Joes sold chocolate covered soynuts. YUM

Sunday, January 2, 2011

After Christmas my husband and I went to Boston for a few days. We ate some great food and had a wonderful time in Boston even though they had just had a blizzard a few days before we arrived.

Our first night in Boston we ate at The Beehive! It was a Wednesday night and they were booked solid with reservations but they said we could eat at the bar. We checked out the bar, it was huge, we sat down :)

We ordered risotto balls, sage french fries, and two short rib and cheddar sandwiches.FABULOUS. the risotto balls did not have spicy cheese like the one's at Taylors in Bethesda but the different flavoring was still really good.

The sage fries were amazing. I loved how the fries are cut. Horizontal and thin. I could only eat half of my short rib and cheese sandwich and we took some fries back to the hotel too. I loved the cheese on the sandwich. It was a very fancy grilled cheese.

Thursday we did the Boston Freedom Trail. We ate lunch in North End which was full of Italian Restaurants. We settled on eating at Cantina Italiana. Yummy but the service was just a tad slow. We were on the go and needed to make it to Charlestown still. I ordered a rigatoni dish with a tomato meat sauce and goat cheese but the waitress suggested I changed my noodles to Bombolotti because this pasta is actually homemade. It was wonderful. My husband ordered chicken parmesan and instead of rigatoni he also subbed the Bombolotti.

For dinner we met up with friends at Border Cafe in Harvard Square. We were told we'd have a 40 minute wait. It was a very busy place. I had a shredded beef burro (just like a burrito) and it came with black beans and rice on the side. It was really great and garlicy which is not usual for any Mexican food I've ever eaten before. We started with chili con queso with chips so I could only eat half of my burro before deciding I may burst. I'd like to go back someday. I hear they have some awesome margaritas.

Friday we took a trip out of town to the town of Salem. We ate dinner at the Witch's Brew Cafe after our tour of the House of 7 Gables. The food was excellent. The waitress said they make their own hummus daily so we tries the hummus as an appetizer. It was very good. I wasn't expecting hummus to be on the menu in Salem. I ordered the steak tips with a side of BBQ sauce. The steak was so melt in the mouth perfect. My husband ordered a hamburger and exclaimed it was leaking with juice. Our friends ordered the french onion soup and both seemed to enjoy it. The salad a friend ordered didn't look very exciting and they did not have ranch dressing. Instead they gave her a sweet vinaigrette.

Saturday we also left Boston. We went to Concord first and ate at Main Street Cafe and Bakery. My husband order a traditional reuben and I ordered a turkey reuben. I also tried the broccoli cheese soup but it was not my favorite. It did come with a nice sweet and moist piece of cornbread though. Our friends ordered a thai chicken flatbread which seemed a bit small and unimpressive.

We visited Lexington which is very close to Concord and then we drove to Potsmouth New Hampshire where we ate at the Portsmouth Brewery. All of us ordered different things. My husband had mussels with curry, coconut milk, lemongrass and a touch of spicy chili sauce. I ordered the chicken tenders with homemade buffalo sauce on the side. I was afraid homemade buffalo sauce might be super spicy but it was fine. I could have handled the tenders rolled in the sauce. My friend's husband ordered the bratwurst burger and my friend ordered a burger. Everyone but me ordered beers and seemed to enjoy them because I think everyone had two rounds.

After dinner we visited a Portsmouth ice cream parlor called Annabelle's. I liked my friends Pumpkin Pie ice cream the best. Her husband had a maple walnut ice cream that smelled just like walnuts and it was a little too light on the maple flavor. I had Reeces peanut butter cup ice cream but honestly Ben and Jerrys peanut butter cup ice cream just can't be beat.

I have wanted a Rachael Ray lasagna pan with the carrying case for a while. Over a year at least. I finally got one for Christmas this year from cooking.com via foodnetwork.com. I have an orange pan and orange case. I got to make my scalloped potatoes recipe for Christmas Eve and transport it to my sister-in-law's house.

One of my teammates has a birthday right before Christmas and we try to make our teammate birthdays special. Last year we had snowpocalypse and we missed having the work celebration. No snow this year so I made a cake and we all got to enjoy it!

This is a vanilla cake. The two layers were split in two resulting in 4 layers of cake. In between the layers is a seedless red raspberry jam and my frosting.For the jam I heated it in a saucepan making it spreadable. My frosting recipe was 1 package cream cheese and 1 stick of butter, vanilla extract, and add powdered sugar until I like how it tastes. I thin the frosting with milk usually but this time I just used a little water.

The snowflakes were made with some white candy melt. A design was drawn on paper, wax paper was placed over the design, candy melt was scooped into a pastry bag, and then the design was traced in the candy melt. Pop in the freezer until it has hardened and you can easily peel the snowflakes off the wax paper.